Internship Jitters

Okay now that I have finished a "full week" of my internship I feel the need to share with you all about how it went, who I met and what I did. The first day was on Monday. Monday was the first day of my internship and the first time I rode the tube ALONE. Sounds scary trust me, I was laying in bed thinking about it the night before like crazy, but it was a piece of cake! So Monday morning I headed to the normal station I leave from...Russell Square and got on the tube there. I had to wait two stops where I got off on Kings Cross and then re-boarded to my final destination of Barbican. Well this was the first time I was ever in the Kings Cross Station and it was CHAOS! There were people everywhere and I became super paranoid. Yes, I was totally that American gripping their backpack in front of their body while walking frantically with a tube map, just in case I were to miss my stop even though that would have been nearly impossible. But I made it with no problems. Got to the building where they buzzed me inside and up I went for my first day. right when I got there Sarah, the lady I work under, introduced me to the others and of course I instantly forgot all of their names. haha woops! After that she showed me my desk and computer (a Mac which I am now in love with). Then Sarah handed me two packets of about 25 pages each and told me I needed to combine the two to create a new program manual for a session they were having and I needed to do this strictly following the company's formatting system. Did she show me how or what to do? NOPE! So...I began. I was fine and finished that with ease and the other projects that she gave me were also no problem, except the one where I made name templates for two hours and then had to re-do them because they weren't PERFECTLY matching. Want to know how long it took me the second time? Approximately eight minutes, yes Sarah decided to show me an easier way after I messed up the first batch. Oh well...I guess? haha. At the end of my first day we had cake and tea to celebrate on of my new co-workers heading out on maternity leave. Yes, I had my first cup of tea and they were all so astonished that I had never had one before, but it might be my last for a while. I think they all make up for my total lack of tea drinking though, literally a lady at my office walks around every single hour asking people if they want tea and EVERY TIME I say no thank you! All in all I had a great first day at my internship, then went and bought my gym membership  and had my first official lift of the season in London! By the time I was finished lifting and walking back home it was already 8:00 here. And that is when it hit me, I don't know how my mom does it. Gets up, goes to work, comes home to cook and eat dinner (which dad helps with greatly) and then still has time to craft, watch shows and spend time with us! Now I completely understand why you fall asleep on the couch every night mom and will NEVER give you a hard time about it again! But I still made time to eat, skype my family for a very lovely birthday call and talk to my classmates back home as well. Then sleep time! After I opened my gift from the family of course.

Day 2: MY 21ST BIRTHDAY! (Don't get your hopes up too high people). Tuesday morning I decided to get up extra early and grab some coffee with Karlee before we hit the tube for our day at work. Things were running very smooth after I ran into some balloons on my way out the door. Yes my fabulous friends decorated the door with tons of nice notes, balloons and streamers! Getting on the tube was fine until I got to that darn Kings Cross again. HOLY PEOPLE! I waited three trains before I made my aggressive move to get on and let me tell you from experience...DON'T take a full, hot drink with you and try to get on a busy train...BAD IDEA. But once again I survived and made it to work. My internship went swell again but I was much busier with small projects left and right. I took my lunch break at 1:00 and ventured over to Starbucks to take advantage of their free wifi. This is when I got to skype my lovely boyfriend for my birthday and then talk to Whitney where she gave me all the details of the Dutch Softball's FIRST DAY OF PRACTICE! It was great to hear everything but a little bittersweet as I was super jealous I couldn't be there. After my lunch break I was given a rather large project to work on which required making thousands of copies...I'm talking I wen't through four or five reams of paper. Well about an hour before I was off I was making good time on this project when the lights went out. First thought...CRAP! How am I ever going to finish this if the power went out. Then I looked to the door and in came three of my co-workers with a treat lit up by candles singing Happy Birthday! It was great. They served me a tart...I believe they called it a Trinkle Tart and also shared some mimosas with me for my 21st. I even got a card with lovely notes from all of them and the cork from the bottle with the date and a coin shoved inside...apparently it's tradition to keep the cork and date it but the coin was a bonus for me! (wow I am rambling, sorry!) After work I made it home just to open my room door to a beautiful bouquet of flowers from...Anthony of course!

They haven't fully bloomed yet, but I do love them very much! They add nice color and personality to my room so that is very nice!

For dinner we had a program planned dinner at a Turkish restaurant called Tas. It was very nice, like fancy, and the food was much better than I was expecting. We got to choose a dish for ourselves and then we also got to try every appetizer on the menu. My friends also sent over a glass of wine for me to have and I received a nice card from our program directors. Here are two pictures of my food:

 Appetizers for the meal. There was a bunch of little "dip" like things for the bread and then a little fried fritter that had cream cheese and spinach inside.

 Our table full of appetizers. Our group didn't get our food until about ten minutes after the first table FINISHED eating...Mark was not too happy with the service.

My main course. It was shrimp, vegetables and mushrooms in a very runny sauce. Not too bad, not my first choice. Although, the guy next to me got a plate of Calamari and it came with honey sauce...yes I stole like four of them from him because they were amazing!

After dinner we came back to the place and hung out for a while. Then decided to head to thyis new bar/club to celebrate my birthday, it was called The Zoo Bar. At first it was a lot of fun, good dancing and socializing but let me just tell you that spending a huge birthday (in America) away from your loved ones is not as easy as it sounds, even living in London! Let's just say I got my hopes up and think I tried to force myself to have the night of my life and then just couldn't do it. But when Paige, and Karlee decided to walk home with me we went into another cool place we have been to before (The Verve) just for the heck of it. Got in for free because I was the birthday girl and met some very nice middle aged people from Texas and IOWA! They gave us their drink vouchers so we had a few on the birthday girl. Then headed back to have pillow talk and sleep for our first day of classes (that aren't required).

Okay last little blurb! First day of Advertising was...awful. haha don't ever go into a class thinking it will be an hour and it ending up being THREE. Our teacher is very nice and super cool but he lectured us in a circle of ten people for three hours...this might be a tough one to get through weekly. We will see though. For now I am recovering from being sore after two days of lifting and lots of walking. I guess 21 does feel different...my bones and muscles are killing! Bath is on Friday for the weekend so hopefully by Sunday I will have pictures and stories from that! Love you all and thank you for all of the birthday love and wishes. You are the greatest!!

The Site-Seeing Softball Player